Josef Newgarden Wins First Race As A Team Penske Driver
By Asher Fair
In just his third race driving for Team Penske, Josef Newgarden is a winner in the 2017 Verizon IndyCar Series season.
Honda won just two of the 16 IndyCar races last season compared to Chevrolet’s 14 victories. However, Honda came into this season winning the first two races at St. Petersburg and Long Beach.
But today it was Josef Newgarden in his Team Penske Chevrolet car that took the victory at the 17-turn, 2.38-mile Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama after starting the race in 7th place. The win was the first for Newgarden since he won at Iowa last season. It was also his first victory as a Team Penske driver.
It took defending IndyCar champion Simon Pagenaud over a full season to win his first race driving for Team Penske. He joined the team in 2015 but did not win until Long Beach in 2016. Newgarden, however, did it in just his third race for Roger Penske’s powerhouse of a team.
Scott Dixon finished the race in 2nd place just 1.0495 seconds behind Newgarden, who also won the race in 2015. The 2nd place finish for Dixon was his fifth in eight races at Barber as well as his seventh podium finish. He is, however, still without a victory there. Last year’s Barber winner Simon Pagenaud came home in 3rd place, followed by Helio Castroneves in 4th.
Dixon was the highest Honda driver in the field. Despite not taking the victory, Honda cars finished in 10 of the top 13 spots in the race. Chevrolet, however, took three of the top 4 positions.
Other Notable Statistics
The race featured a total of eight lead changes among five different drivers and had two caution flag periods for a total of seven laps. Polesitter Will Power led the most laps, leading 90 of the race’s 90. Winner Josef Newgarden, Charlie Kimball, Scott Dixon, and Helio Castroneves also led laps.
The first caution flag of the race flew on lap 3 when there was debris on the track because of contact between the cars of Ryan Hunter-Reay and James Hinchcliffe. The second caution flag of the race flew on lap 63 when Spencer Pigot spun out into the grass in turn 6.
Individual Ups and Downs
The 2016 Indy 500 champion, Alexander Rossi, started the race in 18th position but ended up finishing in 5th place, making him the biggest mover-up in today’s field (up 13 positions).
Will Power sustained a punctured tire in the late stages of the race. This caused him to head to the pits, relinquishing the race lead to Newgarden. He ended up finishing in 14th.
Rookie Ed Jones finished in a career-worst 16th place, and rookie Zach Veach finished in 19th in his first career IndyCar start. Veach was replacing the injured JR Hildebrand for Ed Carpenter Racing.
Once again, Marco Andretti had mechanical issues that took him out of race contention. He was unable to take the green flag due to issues with his gearbox. He finished the race in 21st (last) place.
Coming into the race, the two drivers who had started in last place in the other two races this season had an average finish of 3rd place. Sebastien Bourdais started in last and won at St. Petersburg, and Simon Pagenaud started in last and finished in 5th at Long Beach. Graham Rahal started in last at Barber, but he was unable to match the success of those other two last-place starters, finishing in 13th place.
See full race results from the third race of the 2017 season at IndyCar.com.
Must Read: Has Honda Ended Chevy's Reign?
Next Race
The series hardly takes a break before it returns to action on Saturday, April 29th, 2017. Phoenix International Raceway in Avondale, Arizona hosts the Grand Prix of Phoenix under the lights. Scott Dixon won the event last season. He will look to defend that victory this season.